


Quenching Thirst

by botgal



Series: A Powerful Thing [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Addiction, Blood Drinking, F/M, Rainbow Drinkers, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 02:30:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8648302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/botgal/pseuds/botgal
Summary: Addiction is a powerful thing. And a dangerous one. When taken too far, it will take and take until there is nothing left.But, if his addiction is helping someone other than him, then surely his destruction can't be so bad a thing.





	

It was difficult, those three, long years on the meteor. Most everyone was already dead, no thanks to his own goddamn failure at an attempt at leadership. And those who were left obviously weren't fit or willing to be led by anyone. Least of all by someone like him. As if he deserved any sort of position of power after his previous massive fuckups that caused all these dwindling numbers in the first place.

Just walking those empty, metal halls, seeing those familiar places, it brought up some rather unpleasant thoughts. The memories that came to mind weren't bad ones, most not really at all. It was comparing what they had then, to what little they had left to them now. That was what hurt.

What hurt more than any of that, though, more than his grim reminders and his lack of any real present goals, was that he was so alone.

Dave was just too much of a 'cool guy' to really be dealing with him, he guessed. Rose was too invested in her human sopoforic beverages. The 'mayor' was always occupied with his precious 'Can Town'. Gamzee had made it fairly clear that their moiraillegiance was over and Terezi was too busy hate-date sneaking with the juggalo troll that he never got much chance to see her anymore.

Kanaya was the only one he was keeping in regular contact with these days, and even then it wasn't for much, seeing as she was dealing with Rose and her issues. She had her needs to fill as a Rainbow Drinker after all, and he was one of the few living trolls left alive on the meteor that she could feed off of. And obviously she wasn't going to go for Gamzee, nor would Terezi and her current behavior allow Kanaya near. So, that just left him. At the very least she said that she enjoyed the taste of his mutant blood more than any of the other colors on the hemospectrum she'd sampled. There was no real choice in the matter. If he could manage this one thing at least without fucking up, he felt like it would be a 'motherfucking miracle', as Gamzee might have once put it.

Not that it wasn't something entirely without benefit for him, though. If he were to be completely honest.

Her feedings were always quick and businesslike. Roll up his sleeve, make a prick with her fangs, drink what was necessary, then let go and lap up the remnants until it was clean.

And that was where his benefit came.

One thing that he and Kanaya had learned the hard way about her bites was a common characteristic of Rainbow Drinkers. When the victim was bitten to drink, the fangs injected something in turn. The best idea they could come up with was that it was some sort of mild neurotoxin. After he was bitten, she'd always have to make sure he'd have somewhere soft and sturdy to lie down on for a short while. He acted quite a bit like how Gamzee used to back when there were still sopor pies to consume, only moreso. His vision clouded up, his words became as unintelligible as they were nonsensical, and the best he could really do in terms of movement was flop around a bit. As if his body were made of limp noodles with neither bone nor real muscle to keep him controlled.

And it felt utterly amazing.

Even if just for a little while, he could just lie back and forget about his troubles. It didn't matter that it turned him into a helpless, limp, inanely babbling mess in the short duration. To forget all his wrongs and all that happened, it was as close to happiness as anyone like him deserved, that was for certain.

But then, even what Kanaya provided to him out of her necessity was nowhere near what he truly craved.

No one else really noticed his deteriorating state as their meteor trip progressed further. He was still eating, yet he grew thinner, near to the point where even bag-of-bones Sollux might have gotten concerned by his thinning if he had decided to stick around. Kanaya always gave him off-hand instructions to eat better, which he did, it just didn't help much. Besides, it wasn't anything in his meals or in his regime or body that caused this gradual descent.

It was after they had met their ancestors that the troubles really began for him in that respect.

Whenever they saw the telltale signs that they were in a dream bubble, the formerly near insomniac Karkat did his best to rush to get to sleep. Not that it was hard, in his current state it was easy to just flop over into his makeshift bed in his room and drift off.

She would always be there to greet him at some point or another. Dark swirls of ink that flowed beneath her skin and seemed to twist enticingly with her every move. That lovely dark green dress that Karkat knew made Kanaya the fashionista extraordinaire jealous even.

The first time he let Porrim drink from him, it was a simple, innocent thing. When the aftermaths of Kanaya's bites were still only a result of her necessity, not a constant craving. Porrim'd had plenty of blood during her time still among the living. Except, apparently, bright red mutant blood. Kankri, being the uptight, stick up his nook, holier-than-thou jackass that he was, had always refused her on some stupid grounds like not wanting to be too close and how such acts could provide a trigger for someone and all that bunk he was always spewing.

Karkat, who had never had much of a real problem with Kanaya's need to drink (in spite of his characteristic complaining on the subject), had seen no reason not to indulge her curiosity when he'd revealed his not-so-secret-anymore blood color.

That first bite was what started it all; his descent turned plummet into the abyss he currently resided in.

She had sunk her teeth into his wrist, where Kanaya usually took her meals. She had made it shallow since she only intended to take a taste. But then she didn't stop.

He had just begun to feel a bit fuzzy headed as she lapped up the blood from his inner wrist, when suddenly he felt a second piercing just above the first. He actually cried out for this one, being taken by surprise. She hadn't taken much blood, it was the second bite, with its' fresh injections of whatever it was that caused this that had furthered it along. She didn't seem to be satisfied with just one bite.

She shoved his sleeve further and further up his arm, trailing bites further and further as she left a jagged line of double-piercings in his skin with each new place she drew blood. Soon enough, though, he was past the point of all caring as his head completely clouded over. Even when she shredded the top of his shirt so she could at last sink her fangs into his throat.

Forget the limpness and dizziness that Kanaya left him with, with how far she was going he was practically comatose. His mouth hung open slightly as his jaw muscles went slack and relaxed, half-opened eyes were too dilated and glassy to really be seeing anything, even the slight shudders of his chest as he breathed were too weak to really be considered much in the way of signs of life.

It was better than sleep, even in the most amazing sopor slime he'd ever been able to afford submerging himself in back on Alternia. However long he ended up being out for, it was a time of sheer, unadulterated bliss. He was awake without being awake, adrift in pure white noise and darkness as he felt himself be almost carried away from his own body.

He 'awoke' back into the dream bubble after what appeared to have been a long while, lying sideways in Porrim's arms as she stroked his hair and between his horns. She cooed apologies to him for losing control, almost motherly in the way she held him and comforted him. When he was at last able to collect himself to sit up and speak to her, his question made her eyes to wide and her lips involuntarily part for her fangs.

Would she want to do that again?

The bites weren't like any normal human drug, where one needed more and more in order to feel the same high. On the contrary, it seemed as though his body was slowly growing weaker to it each time it was released into his veins. Leaving him in longer, deeper stupors after each 'feeding'. He'd begun to crave the sensation of their bites, not just because they allowed him to forget and float, but because his body had begun to tell him how it needed it so much MORE. Perhaps it was another Rainbow Drinker thing. Keep the victims tamed instead of having to go out and drag new ones with their claws digging resistantly into the ground back to their lair each time they hungered for blood. Why go on the hunt when you had a pacified, unresisting, _willing_ living bag of blood right there at your disposal? One that would never want to leave even if they were free from all physical bonds.

Kanaya never really noticed, of course, being all wrapped up in her own issues, and Porrim was just too deeply into craving his colorful taste to really care about much other than that they could still do this. But all of this worked out for him in his favor anyhow. He wanted to be flung headfirst back into that stupor, and sometimes found himself dreading the knowledge that it would pass and he would be clear headed enough to remember his burdens and his guilty conscience again. His former hatred of sleep and resting had turned on its' head, now he knew what it would bring him.

When awake, he antsily kept a closer eye on Kanaya now, almost able to clock now the routine times when she would need to feed from him again, and he looked forward to it. She would come to him in his room and he would have to restrain himself from flinging his body into her arms to feel the sting of her teeth in his arm again. The more she took the better.

Then, in sleep, he nearly flew with reckless abandon to find Porrim, who just as eagerly took him up and shredded through his clothing in the rush to taste his candy red life's essence again. She never started so tentatively since that first time. The first chance she got she showered his throat and shoulders with bites to draw forth more and more of his delectable color, while he gave himself in to her numbing bites and let himself droop into her and be pampered in the stupor until he next awakened.

It was poison addiction, that was plain and simple for anyone to see. Leading him down a path to his own destruction with each blood-draining bite. But lying there, curled up in the arms of his friend's ancestor, with his head swimming free of conscience and his own self loathing, he couldn't think of any other place he'd possibly rather be.

 

 


End file.
